Mariners overwhelmed by Athletics in finale

The Oakland Athletics congratulate each other on the field after beating the Mariners 8-2 to split their four-game series.

Brandon Maurer looked OK at times today but wasn’t going to be good enough to notch a victory for a Mariners teams that again did not muster much offense.

The game was closer for much of the day than the final score of 8-2 indicated, but in the end, the Oakland Athletics had too much firepower for Maurer and the bullpen to contain.

Maurer lasted six innings and wound up allowing six earned runs on eight hits, five of them for extra bases. He allowed home runs to Josh Reddick and Yoenis Cespedes and, more importantly, kept giving runs back right after his team scored.

Chalk it up as a learning experience. The Mariners secure a split here, but it’s a little bittersweet since they were up two games to none. But the last two days, the offense wasn’t nearly enough to match what Oakland brought to the table.

Michael Morse hit his fourth home run in the last three days. But with nobody on base, it wasn’t going to be enough for the Mariners to catch up. The Mariners had some baserunners today — nine of them total — but pushed only the two runs across due to a lack of timely hitting.